The Bird Education Network (BEN)
was created following the February 2007 National Gathering,
hosted by CEE. BEN is a CEE initiative that seeks to create a
network of bird education
professionals.
The building and
strengthening of such a network must overcome seemingly
unconnected outcomes in bird education and conservation.
This can be accomplished when the efforts are seen as hopeful,
creative, and, most importantly, cumulative.
A BEN Committee
has been established to provide advice and guidance for this
important initiative, to advance "bird conservation through
education."
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 Early Bird
Deadline One
Week Away
Bird Conservation through
Education: A National Gathering,
22-26 February 2009
Jekyll Island,
Georgia
Reminder!! The
deadline for early bird registration for Bird
Conservation through Education: A National
Gathering is Monday, December 15th, 2008.
The full registration fee of $295 covers sessions,
activities, and meals. It will be a HUGE help to
us if you can register by the December 15th early
bird deadline as we work to plan for field trip
transportation and meals. Plus, you will save $55
by registering early.
For more details on location, hotel rates, field
trips, and developing conference specifics, see the BEN
website.
To make your reservation
please call the Jekyll Island Club Hotel at (800)
535-9547. Single rooms are only $119 plus tax. Share a
room and stay for as little as $70 per night.
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Thank You to our Early
Conference Sponsors!
Conference Sponsors
U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service's National Wildlife Refuge
System and the Kaytee Avian
Foundation.
Conference
Contributors
Environmental Education and
Training Partnership, the Georgia Ornithological
Society, Coastal Georgia Audubon Society, Wild Bird
Centers of America, Friends of Jeanne Fossani and
Barbara Price, President, Council for Environmental
Education.
For more information
on sponsorship opportunities click
here or to download a copy of our
donation form click
here.
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 It's 'Fly Away
Home' ...
For
Real!
Operation Migration, along with
members from U.S. Fish and
Wildlife, are leading a flock of 14 young
Whooping Crane chicks to Florida. This is the 8th
year they have guided juvenile (captive-raised) Whooping
Cranes south behind ultralight aircraft. But
their journey is more perilous and a bit longer than in
the Columbia-Tri-Star movie.
Weather delays
from wind and rain have already grounded the team more
days than they wish to acknowledge. The migration
generally takes about two months and ends with the
arrival of the birds at Chassahowitzka NWR. This
year they are taking a different migration route, flying
through Alabama. Half the flock will winter at a
new site, St. Marks NWR, south of Tallahassee, with the
other half at Chassahowitzka in
Florida.
The Whooper chicks will remember
this route and return on their own
next spring to their training grounds at
Necedah NWR in Wisconsin.
The varied educational aspects of
Operation Migration include bird navigation and
orientation, geography, weather, and
the physics of flight.
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 BEN
Committee
Meets in
Houston
The BEN
Committee met in
Houston the second
week of
November. The group discussed
details for the February
Jekyll
Gathering in Georgia, top priorities for the coming
year, fundraising opportunities, communication efforts
among bird educators, and BEN's intent for
developing best practices for bird
education.
The discussions were lively and promising and it
was good to have a chance to review
the accomplishments of the past year.
The meeting was sponsored and hosted by the Council
for Environmental Education (CEE), which has launched
BEN as a CEE initiative intended to build a
broad-based bird educators' network.
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For More Information visit:
